Sach Ka Saamna

Is “Sach Ka Saamna” really all about truth?

The urge to air reality shows on Indian television started with MTV’s show, ‘Roadies’ in 2003. A colossal hit, it paved the way for many more reality shows to take centre stage in the Indian television industry scenario. The most popular shows currently being aired are: Bigg Boss Season 3, Sach Ka Saamna and Is Jungle Se Mujhe Bachao. Of the three, the most controversial has undoubtedly been Sach Ka Saamna.

Sach Ka Saamna (SKS) is a new show on Star Plus, with the aim of asking really hard questions on national TV to participants who will answer such questions in the hope of receiving up to Rs. 1 crore in prize money. SKS is the Indianized version of the international reality show, ‘The Moment of Truth’. It revels in asking 50 questions that test a person’s ability to answer them truthfully. The show, which airs on Star Plus during 10:30 – 11:00 pm on weekdays, was launched on July 15 this year. Hosted by Rajiv Khandelwal, SKS features a combination of celebrities and normal people, with Smitha Mithai, a middle class housewife, being the first person on the show, followed by actor Yusuf Hussain and former Test cricketer for India, Vinod Kambli.



The show has had the biggest opening in the history of Indian television.

There have been a lot of issues with the airing of Sach Ka Saamna. People have opposed the show because they think that it violates the basic moral code of Indian society. Sometime back, it would have been difficult to believe that a show like ‘The Moment of Truth’ could have an Indian version; now, not only are people from all across the country eager to participate in the show but it has gained tremendous popularity among viewers as well.

The show is virtually equivalent to baring yourself in public. A person is seated in front of their families and friends and asked whether he has betrayed them or felt anything for his family. Even more direct questions related to their sexual habits (such as when a contestant was asked whether he had sex with a girl younger than his daughter) are also not taboo. One wonders how long this show will go on before questions are asked in Parliament and the outrage forces a clampdown.

Kamal Akhtar, a Samajwadi Party MP, doesn’t like SKS because “obscene questions are asked by the programme’s anchor.” MPs protested in Parliament against the show saying that the questions asked on the show were inappropriate and that it was an outrageous serial which should be banned.

According to the show’s producers, the participants are aware of the show’s format and they don’t have any problems in answering those questions.



As protagonists of the serial, they opine that if people don’t like the show they have the option of changing the channel.

On the one hand, while we are still not sure whether the results of polygraph tests are 100% accurate, the use of such tests to verify the contestants’ answers has raised a lot of eyebrows. And it still remains for us to find out how much truth there actually is in “Sach Ka Saamna”…